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Chennai Develothon !

Well, this is the apt time for me to share my experiences about IBM Develothon 2010. Being a student, I do now want to express my thoughts by masking professionalism over me. So, How a student feels when he hears about a event hosted by a great company ?? Hope you all can imagine. But even then, this blog will describe how a student feels about a company andhis participation in the event.

IBM is a Company related to Computer software and hardware. We have heard about IBM through TGMC ( www.tgmc.in ) , DB2 , and in exceptional cases through Blue Gene and Mainframes. Though we are not much related to the company, we feel its a great company and always waits for a chance to get connected with them. We, try to connect to them basically through Internship and industrial visits which always remains a dream. So, when I got a chance to represent them in my campus ,I happily accepted the opportunity and became IBM DB2 Student Ambassador. The role is purely to promote DB2 on campus and I did the same for some months as of now and learnt DB2 on my own. With all blocks being blasted away my classmates were given training on DB2 and now they are preparing for their DB2 certification( 000-730 ).

I always subscribe to newsletters of various companies to keep pace with the industry. I receive many of them daily, and one day i got DW newsletter.It had information about IBM Develothon 2010 being conducted in Bangalore. I was totally angry about that, because we chennai students gets only 1 % of industry opportunities of what Bangalore students get ( later came to know that , IBM Develothon 2010, is across India and even in chennai ! ) So, a great company, conducts a great event and the venue is 3 km from my den. Should I miss that??Never. One of my friend who is always crazy about IBM technologies, called up Mr.Harsha Vardhan, to hear that students are not allowed. My anger rose up again ! If not for students, who else then? we're the future professionals. Cant we attend this??

Here came Ms.Apra Sahney, DeveloperWorks India, Community Marketting Manager with a sweet info that she will make arrangements for students to attend but only limited. That's a really great message to hear and 3 of my classmates along with me was awaiting this event.

April 5, 2010 :

We entered the venue with all butterflies inside our brains. We're here for a IBM event where students are not allowed. Though we have special permissions ( We love to call it like that ) we were afraid to face the professionals ( future bosses ) there ! Somehow managed with the guts and 3rd row from last :P Ms.Bharati Muthu started off welcoming everyone and had a good interactive welcome note with the audience. We had two sessions lined up , on clouds.

1. Private cloud and Public Clouds. - The speaker clearly explained the difference , the need , the capablities of the private and public clouds. Though we did not understand fully, we got more than half of his points into our mind.2. Amazon Clouds Setup - I liked this session. This gave a clear picture of how the clouds can be deployed and used. I loved to hear about AMI ( I hope its Amazon Machine Images ).

We had a heavy brunch ( Brunch must be light ! The Hotel must ensure it next time!) and was happy for next one hour. We had one great Man to talk with us about Bringing in IBM to our campus and bringing out students to IBM. I mean, he suggested lots of practical ways to expose IBM technologies to students. He's Mr. Dirender Nirwani from IBM Develothon Team . I felt he's a down to earth person, and we had a casual conversation and not a student-professional one. Happy about it ! Also met Mr. Saravanan Sekar, who was the IBM point of contact for my college few years back. He explained the plain truth behind the dumbness of my college.I accept to his point where even the most powerful authority in the college is not interested in helping IBM to give students the exposure they need. Bad time for us I missed the third session ( Cloud Outburst)

Here comes the most crucial part. One of my friends, Mr.Praveen Ram C, got nominated to speak at the Unconference. He spoke on " Cloud Computing -Is 'IT' ready for the change ? " and explained the facts in the best but yet simple terms and strongly stated that IT is ready for the change. We prayed for this small professional to win the Develothon Trophy and it happened. Thanks for the audience and IBM for choosing my friend to take away the trophy ! Proud about it.

On the whole, we students are totally satisfied about the event. Some reasons to support this :

1. We were the only students. That made us feel special.2. We got 2 good sessions with a clear picture of clouds ( Sunny day !)3. We conversed with Mr.Dirender and Mr. Saravanan about Institution-Industry relations4. We had our friend as the winner of the unconference.5. Its a IBM event !

We are still excited and happy about it even now and want to be a part of such events in future too ! The only bad thing is that I missed the Develothon cars for the snapshots !